Trump to hold rally for Cruz in Houston at 8,000-seat arena

President Trump will host a rally in Houston next week with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as he seeks re-election in a race against Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas). 

The event will take place on Monday at the 8,000-seat NRG Arena, the president’s campaign announced Monday night.

Trump pledged in August to hold a “major rally” at “the biggest stadium in Texas we can find.”

An aide for the Trump campaign who asked not to be identified told The Dallas Morning News that the arena was the biggest location available on Oct. 22, and disputed that the venue fell short of expectations the president set in his August tweet.

{mosads}The Dallas Morning News reported that neighboring NRG Stadium, which holds 80,000 people, is hosting a monster truck event two days before the scheduled campaign rally, and an NFL game three days after.

The Toyota Center, home to the Houston Rockets, has a comedy show scheduled two days before the campaign event, and a concert set for the day after, the news outlet reported.

Monday’s rally will be the latest event in a recent burst of campaign activity for the president. Trump has in recent weeks traveled to Tennessee, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky to boost Republican candidates and tout his accomplishments ahead of the midterms.

Trump will travel later this week to Montana, Arizona and Nevada in support of GOP Senate candidates locked in tight races.

The national GOP has offered support for Cruz, who has been drawn into a tight re-election race against O’Rourke. The Democrat has captured national attention with his viral speeches and eye-popping fundraising hauls in traditionally Republican Texas.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election forecaster, rates the Texas Senate race as as “toss-up.”

A RealClearPolitics average of polls in the race shows Cruz with a 7-point lead in the race.

Trump and Cruz have been publicly supportive of one another after an acrimonious 2016 presidential campaign in which the two regularly exchanged insults. The president labeled Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” and the senator blasted then-candidate Trump as a “sniveling coward” and a “pathological liar.”